In July, Shellenbarger highlighted Spain’s research in her work-and-family column.

“I could not answer all the phone calls,” said Spain after the column appeared.

Then a “CBS This Morning” producer called and asked Spain to be on the show. His first instinct was to turn down the invitation, worried that it would add too much stress to the workload of his wife, Emily Love. The couple welcomed twin daughters in March.

“But then she said, ‘Are you crazy?’ So I called them back and agreed to the interview.”

Dark traits in small doses can be seen positively, said Spain. For example, narcissists often make a good first impression and skillfully present their own ideas, manipulators are good at forming alliances, and people who are less concerned with other people’s welfare are more willing to take risks.

“But too much of any one of these can have terrible outcomes in the workplace.”

The Dark Triad is not a new area of psychology research, but its application in organizational behavior is new, said Spain’s co-author Peter Harms, assistant professor of management at the University of Nebraska. The two became acquainted when they were psychology graduate students at the University of Illinois.

In 2010, Harms, a new business professor, received funds to hire a postdoctoral research fellow. He called mentors back at his alma mater and asked, “Is there anyone really special I could recruit? They said, Seth Spain.” That began their research association into dark personality traits in the workplace.

“Seth is a statistical and mathematical genius,” said Harms. “He’s almost without equal in our field for his understanding of those issues.”

Spain credits his freshman math teacher at Boylan Catholic High School, where he graduated in 1999, for getting him excited about mathematics in the first place. That teacher, Gerald Davies of Rockford, retired this spring after 48 years of teaching.

“It doesn’t surprise me that Seth’s done so well,” said Davies. “I remember him as always focused and studious. He was very dedicated and hard-working.”

Davies said many graduates from Boylan’s Class of 1999 have gone on to find success in their fields.

“It’s really gratifying to me as a teacher when I see our young people take what they’ve learned here and do so well in this world.”

Spain went on to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he said his career was changed dramatically by one undergraduate class, taught by a graduate student, Rasheed Dalal, who now heads the industrial and organizational psychology department at George Mason University.

“At the time, I was an engineering student,” said Spain. “That one-semester course made me reconsider my life.”

Spain’s research may appeal to a wide audience, said Dalal, but it also intrigues the academic community that studies organizational behavior. Studying dysfunctional personality traits in this context has not been done before, he said.

“It’s frightening that these people can get ahead, even for a little while, because they leave a trail of destruction behind them,” Dalal said.

Spain said his current focus on dark personality traits does not mean that he is promoting negative behavior for the workplace. “Ultimately, I want people to choose the road that leads to the most human happiness.”

He tells his students that he understands traits more as habits, and there are ways to develop habits that are healthy in a workplace setting. He also believes it’s helpful to recognize dark personality traits in co-workers.

“One of the things most useful in the work environment is self awareness — knowing who you are, your values, what’s important to you, and also knowing your strengths and weaknesses,” he said.

“Having self-awareness is the key to authenticity. It’s appreciated by superiors, co-workers, and especially subordinates alike.”